Adventure Five: Walking in a Winter Wonderland
After the space battle, Wolf distributes the various loot he scavenged. Ruth gets cigarettes from him so she can chill the fuck out. He also asks P0P1 about its sentience and the risks it faces from humans, with ambiguous success, though P0P1 does readily agree to run an errand for him. Alder talks to the NPCs about their situation and the challenges ahead, and with Jack’s assistance is able to win their confidence. Dr. Kuhlani talks to Jack afterward, sharing the fact that she has files on Ruth, Cavill, and Lopez, and struggles with the ethical dilemma between confidentiality and sharing information about potential risks. Vania gets to know the weapons systems, and Phlox ends up joining her to learn about them. Earl explains to Lopez the state of Earth and society/government; her last memory was a mission to Anchorage in 2075. Mike asks if Alder is a Vault dweller and shares his origin in Vault 11. The original overseer told the population that they had to sacrifice one person each year for their survival. After nearly 200 years, factions developed that would nominate others and protect their members with voting blocs. The leader of the dominant Justice Bloc blackmailed Catherine Stone with a threat to nominate her husband. When he nominated her husband anyway, she reprogrammed the vault to select a sacrifice at random, removing the Justice Bloc’s power and leading to revolt. Mike and 4 others survived, and when they refused to nominate any other sacrifices, the Vault revealed that the whole thing was a test, and their rebellion was the key to unlocking the Vault. Mike has since spent his time searching for and freeing other Vaults in atonement. He remembers being kidnapped from the surface and is in search of a replacement Pip-Boy. Dr. Kuhlani shares with Ruth information on Cavill, who is displaying addiction to the heightened, accelerated sensory experience of connecting with the ship. Or’ree introduces us to the two Seshayans from the broken tanks, Ja’bee and Tandberg. P0P1 picks up messages being broadcast, including one that contains religious propaganda, but doesn’t share this with the others. Earl, Alder, Wolf, Mike, and Phlox a little bit, try to teach the others about what happened on Earth and what they might expect upon landing. Ship starts to descend over Antarctica towards South America. Error message: “Gravity assist unavailable. Moving towards next landing site.” The ship is only able to find half the needed gravity assist across the entire planet and attempts a bumpy landing. Cavill plugs in and gives piloting control back to Ruth. Or’ree and the NPCs stabilize the Seshayan tanks, which are damaged by the sudden shift in gravity, and Earl repairs several of the cracked tanks. Vania provides Cavill and Ruth instructions on steering to compensate for the sharp angle of our flight trajectory. Jack uses nanotech to remove security barriers so P0P1 can manipulate the ship gravity system to mitigate the impact, while Alder reroutes some of the ship’s shield systems to help hold the tanks in place. 7 of the 12 tanks shatter, killing 2 and leaving 5 conscious and hostile Seshayans. Jack uses his gizmo to hypnotize 4 of them, and Or’ree restrains the other one, while Earl heals everyone in the med bay and Alder suppresses the Seshayans’ fear. Vania finds the control to make the ship adjust to the atmosphere and eliminate turbulence. P0P1 accesses the navigation system and identifies our destination as the Olympic Peninsula, and Ruth steers the ship into the snowy treescape to land. We explore the surroundings, and a 10+ ft. tall furry, horned, multi-jointed creature with a Gatllng gun. He calls us “rejects from John Carter of Mars on ice” and asks if “the grays” are with us. He is suspicious of us knowing the Aklo word and angry that we have "chupacabras" with us but seems to recognize Freehaven. Oops he’s Sasquatch Stan and it’s October 29, 2288.